Absorbent-cotton substitute for medical bandages



May 1, 1923. 1,453,575

J, T. TONG ET AL ABSORBENT COTTON SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL BANDAGES Original Filed April 27. 1918 @Muawtom game swam/L Q11: 18g MM, f'aawm (MW aitoww JAMES TURNER TONG AND JOHN EDWARD isnossna, or cnnsrnn, rmmsYLv NIA, ASSIGNORS '10 sco'rr PAPER comrANY, A CQRPORATION or PENNSYLVANIA.

ABSORBENT-COTTON SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL BANDAGES.

Original application filed April 27, 1918, Serial No. 231,229. Divided and this application flied June 19, 1918. Serial No. 240,880.

substitute for cotton at a very materially less cost; it being the intent and purpose of our invention to utilize inexpensive wood fiber or other desirable cheap paper stock specially prepared and manipulated to make it suitable for the production of our improved cotton substitute.

More particularly, our object is to make a delicate lace-like structure of fiber intermeshed sufficiently to hold the said delicate fibrous structure together without requirement of material strength, such as would be necessary in paper. The lace-like material is formed as a continuous web, which is then rolled up'so as-to superpose large numbers of the delicate layers to provide a body of sufiicient thickness, and thereafter said superposed layers severed at one or more places to provide a batting of soft, pliable, spongy fibrous material which constitutes a satisfactory and effective substitute for absorbent cotton and at a greatly reduced cost. In the production of our new article or commodity, we provide a pulp of fibrous material which contains an excess of water and a relatively small quantity of sizing, the said pulp being of such character that a very small percentage of the fiber is carried to the webs or aprons of the apparatus upon which it is to be deposited at any moment of time/the webs carrying away the delicate fibers at a speed which prevents said fibers being accumulated in a sufiioiently dense relation as would constitute a paper; and

thereafter, the delicate lace-like fibrousstructure, which is deposited upon the conveying apron, is deprived of its moisture and dried with as little agitation as possible, and subsequently removed from suitable drying apparatus and rolled or otherwisereceived to superpose the layers into a form which will constitute the absorbent substitute for cotton in batting form, such as is used in connection with surgical operations, all of which will be better understood by the descriptions hereinafter contained.

Our invention consists of the improved article of manufacture hereinafter described and more particularly defined in the claims.

This apglication is a division of our agplication er. No. 231,229 filed April .2 1918, in which is claimed the process of manufacturing our improved article and also the apparatus therefor, and we, therefore, make no claim herein to either the process or apparatus.

In the drawings: Fig. 1 illustrates, diagrammatically, a suitable form of apparatus by the operation of which our improved method may be practiced and our article of manufacture be made; Fig.2 is a plan view illustrating the vat in which the paper pulp is contained and kept in agitation; Fig. 3

is a plan view of a portion ofthe delicate fibrousweb; Fig. 4 illustrates the employment of such webs in forming a batting for absorbent purposes, and Fig. 5 shows the lace-like structure of the web on a magnified scale.

2 is a vat or stock box in which paper pulp, having a relatively large amount of water, as compared to the floating fiber therein, is contained and kept ina state of agitation by a circulating'pump 4 having a discharge pipe 5 from which the circulated pulp is re-distributed in the box through a pipe 6, made in any suitable manner. 3 is a cylinder whose face is made of suitable material which will permit a free circulation of the water of the pulp through it and may be made of wire mesh, perforated sheet metal or thin wood slats, as preferred. This cylinder is journaled in the vat and its interior is preferably in communication with the suction inlet to the circulating pump 4, so that there will be a'tendency to cause a circulation of the water of the pulp through the face of the cylinder and thence to the pump, and in that way cause the fiber of the pulp to settle upon a web' or apron 7 which passes about the said 'cylinder 3. The web 7 is held to the cylinder at its receiving side by a guide or couch roll 8, which is arranged above the level of the pulp, and. said web extends downward and around the cylinder 3 and thence upward and over the same in a slightly oblique direction and is guided over another guide roll 9. From the guide roll 9 the web 7 passes over the suction boxes 10 by which the excess moisture which may be carried by the web and fiber is largely removed. The web then passes about the roll 11 which presses the web and its fiber stock from the pulp against the face of a drying roll 14, to which the fiber stock, in its lace-like form, istransferred. The web 7 then passes downward and about a guide roll 12 and thence back to the guide rolls 8 where it again comes in contact with the cylinder 3. Intermediate of two of the guide rolls 12, the web is carried upward and between pressure rolls 17, by which any excess of moisture may be removed, and the web subjected to pressure which will maintain it in a compact form and with smooth surfaces suitable for receiving the fiber stock in the vat 2. The web 7 is preferably formed of felt and-in operation of a machine of this character, is known as wet felt, but

this web or endless apron may be made of other material such as webbing of soft texture which is p-ervious to moisture and at the same time has sufiicient body to be a suitable receiver and carrier for the delicate pulp fiber. The apparatus may be driven in any suitable manner so as not to put undue strainupon the web, and this may be accomplished by any suitable gearing and driving mechanism (not shown).

In operation, the cylinder 3 is revolved, and with it travels the web or apron 7 and during this revolution, the water is caused to pass through the felt apronand in doing so leaves a thin film of fiber stock upon the surface, the quantity of which depends upon the thinness of the stock in the solution, the speed of the" apron, and the extent of the circulation by the pump relatively to the speed of the cylinder. The object is to make this deposit very thin so that when-the stock is removed from the web it is of an open lace-like structure, very frail, but which when assembled to constitute a large number of superposed layers, gives an exceedingly pliable and spongy body of desirable strength. The stock in the vat or box 2 may be replenished gradually in any suitable manner, and this may be done in a continu ous or more or less intermittent operation.

When the delicate lace-like fiber in web form 18 is delivered to the drying cylinder 14 by the pressure of the roller 11, the said fiber stock adheres to the drying cylinder sufficiently to sustain itself and after it has been carried around approximately threequarters of the circumference of the cylinder, it is removed automatically by coming in contact with a doctor or scraper 15, which rests against the face of the drying cylinder. We do not confine ourselves to any particular construction of this doctor or scraper. The effect of bringing the delicate lace-like fiber web 18 in contact with the doctor or scraper 15 to remove it fromthe cylinder, is also to crowd the fiber together at a point where it is acted on by the doctor or scraper, and consequently when it is released from the drying cylinder, it is more or less roughened as to surface by the bunching or crowding together of the fibers, and while this is very slight in extent, it nevertheless very materially aids in providing the sponginess which is required in a commodity to be used as a substitute for absorbent cotton, As the delicate fiber web in this roughened condition is delivered from the drying cylinder, it is then rolled upon a cylinder 16 of considerable diameter, and after there is the desired thickness obtained by superposed layers, the receiving cylinder is replaced by another; and the layers wound upon the cylinder are then cut across longitudinally of the cylinder and laid open as a web of superposed layers and equivalent to a layerof cotton batting. The lacelike fiber is indicated in Fig. 3, and the layer of fiber batting is indicated in Fig. 4.

"We have illustrated anddescribed one suitable apparatus fior carrying out the method of making our improved article of manufacture, but it is to be understood that -while this apparatus is desirable on account of its simplicity, nevertheless more-costly paper making apparatus, employing a Fourdrinier machine, may be employed, and it is evident that much of an ordinary paper making machine would be eliminated as there is no positive strong web of paper to be handled in a machine of the character reuired for our improved method. We, t erefore, do not restrict ourselves to any particular character of apparatus for carrying out the method.

While the fibrous Web 18 is of open or lacelike character, preferably having numerous apertures 18 as clearly indicated in Fig. 5, this result is pomible more particularly by reason of the careful preparation of the pulp stock and the agitation which is imparted to it at the time of depositing the fibers upon the traveling felt in the vat.

-Tiie objects to be attained are to provide a the web, that they intermesh' and co-operate to form, in the finished article, an exceedingly strong and elastic web which is tough pulp is beaten to produce a long wet fiber stock. We do not confine ourselves to the use of any one kind of pulp, but may use various kinds, either single or combined in various proportions; and while for economical purposes the fibers of wood pulp are the cheapest, nevertheless our invention may embody the use ofany charactersof pulp such as known as sulphite, soda, kraft, linen rag and mechanical wood, any .or' all of which are suitable for the purposes herein described. In the making of pulp stock for use with this invention, a relatively small amount of size to a very large excess of water is employed sothat the product will have an absorbent quality, while at the same time the fibers will be so free that they may intermesh in everyslirection, as previously stated, to produce a tough product, notwithstanding its delicate lace-like texture.

We are aware that surgical absorbent dressings have been'heretofore made from superposed rumpled tissue paper, but such papers have not been satisfactory, because the various layers did not properly adhere to insure the desired unification of the mass to enable proper handling, and moreover, such sheets have been of too dense a character to provide the desired porosity, sufficient'to make them yielding to an extent that would approximate natural absorbent cotton, and we do not, therefore, claim the superimposed sheets of papenof this character. We are also aware that it'has been proposed to form a surgical dressing by employing alternate layers of rumpled cellulose-tissue or tissue paper with a very thin batt of absorbent cotton between each of the sheets of rumpled paper and in which the absorbent cotton between the sheets of paper provide the desired sponginess. while the tissue paper provides the strength necessary, but such dressings are not only complicated to make but arealso costly 1n that they involve the use of a large proportion of true absorbent cotton, and we do not claim anything of this nature.

We are also aware that it has been p roposed to form a porous material cornpnsmg layers of vegetable fiber and more specifically consisting of alternate layers of raw cotton and wood fiber, the latter consisting of carded wood pulp, but it is pointed out that such material, both as to the cotton or the wood fiber,'does not have the. characteristics of a paper, the layers of cotton being depended upon to hold the loose wood fiber in position between them, and the entire compound material or batting also being enclosed within a porous textile covering for holding it together. The said particular construction therefore, does not correspond to our structure. Moreover, this compound batting structure, as well as the others of the prior art previously mentioned, embodying as they do raw cotton to a large extent,

they do not conform to the special purpose of our invention which is particularly intended to avoid the use of costly cotton in ttahe making up of our article of manufacure.

We have described our improved article of manufacture produced in connection with an apparatus which we deem to be best suited to the requirements of the invention, and on account of economy is preferred in commercial practice, but we do not restrict or confine ourselves to the minor or secondary details either as to the method of procedure or the means employed in putting it into to as matters of mechanical skill and without a departure from the spirit of the invention. Having now described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, iS l 1. A substitute for cotton batting in medical bandages, comprising a plurality of superposed layers of delicate open-mesh webs effect, as variations therein may be resorted of vegetable fiber, the open-mesh portions 7 of thefibers being irregularly disposed over each other and providing a spongy honeycombed structure having great absorbent qualities, the said open-mesh layers having their contacting surfaces roughened by the fibers being crowded in more or less parallel lines to increase the sponginess without materially decreasing the open-mesh character.

2. As an improved article of manufacture for use as a substitute for absorbent cotton, a delicate open-mesh web formed of paper stock and in which the fibers of the stock I are in such small quantity as to be approximately sufficient to just hold themselves into relation to form-the web and providing a very porous open-mesh structure which when superposed into multi-ply relation provides a soft, spongy absorbent material for use with medical bandages.

3. As an improved article of manufacture for use as a substitute for absorbent cotton, a plurality of superposed layers each layer composed of a delicate open-mesh web formed of paper stock and in which the fibers of the stock are in such small quantity more or less dense structure but of an exas to be approximately sulficient to just hold oeedingly soft spongy condition having themselves into relation to form a web and great absorbent qualities. 3 providing a very porous open-mesh struc- In testimony of which invention, We here- 5 ture, the open spaces through the respective unto set our hands.

layers being irregularly disposed in relation JAMES TURNER TQNG. to each other so as to provide an article of JOHN EDWARD BLOSSER. 

